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![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1572/2038/200/06-7-16-2e-jewel%20weed.jpg)
When I first decided on a butterfly garden I was attracted by the idea that several of the recommended plants had “weed” in their name and therefore should be easy to grow. I have planted butterfly weed and tropical milkweed.
When we first moved here, Bean let me dig some black-eyed susans and blanket flower from her garden. Last summer, to my delight, they both came back. I watered and fussed over them and the black-eyed susans finally rewarded me with tons of blooms. The blanket flower just got bigger and bigger and kept sending up funny looking stalks that never flowered. I now realize that I spent the summer nurturing a narrow leaf plantain and it was a very pretty, very large plantain. So large that I didn’t recognize it as being the same as the weeds in the lawn a mere two feet away! It is no longer in the flower bed but I laugh at myself when I see one of the dozens growing in the yard. It turns out that they are a butterfly host plant so I had started my garden without realizing it and they are welcome to remain in the yard.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1572/2038/200/06-7-16-2h%20fleabane.jpg)
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1572/2038/200/wild%20buckwheat.jpg)
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1572/2038/200/06-7-16-1o%20pokeweed.jpg)
While looking at various milkweed plants online I realized that it wasn’t milkweed as the leaves were alternate rather than opposite.
So I spent a good deal of time trying to find out what it was hoping that it would turn out to be another weed appropriate for a butterfly garden. This turned out to be a very frustrating task. I browsed and searched several university sites, I googled and then I discovered the Ontario Weeds site. I now know that I transplanted pokeweed! We have quite a bit of it growing around the edge of our property. John spent a long time trying to get rid of a pokeweed patch at Mom’s. At one point he thought the shovel might break, the tap root on the largest plant was huge. So why didn’t I recognize this weed? The ones at the edge of the property are ten feet tall and I just never pictured these nice little seedlings turning into such giants! I pulled them all out tonight and now have a large bare spot in the garden. I won’t be moving anymore plants until I know what they are!
If I like a “weed” I will continue to plant, encourage and coddle because by definition they aren’t really weeds at all.
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